392 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
e 
this character. And from the little previous know- 
ledge requisite to discharge their duties, they 
would be peculiarly appropriate and acceptable to 
young men of science, already sufficiently acquainted 
with mercantile concerns, or perhaps still engaged 
therein, but who desire some little leisure for more 
intellectual though profitless pursuits. There are, 
for instance, five or six consulships, at the least, in 
South America, where the duties seldom occupy 
more than three or four hours in the day, although 
the appointments are indispensable. Why cannot 
we follow the example of France, in this instance, 
at least, and give such situations to those who 
(being duly qualified in other respects), are men of 
science, desiring to visit other countries, and who, 
in return, would enrich our national collections with 
new objects, and our scientific transactions with 
fresh discoveries? The supineness of our govern- 
ment on this subject was particularly remarked by 
some intelligent foreigners a few years ago, when 
the Brazilian Consuls of Russia, Prussia, and France, 
at Rio de Janeiro, were all naturalists, having 
full leisure to perform their official duties, and at 
the same time to collect and transmit to their 
governments large and valuable collections of 
Brazilian zoology. The English Consul, at one of 
these ports, on the other hand, was an illiterate 
person, who turned into his hammock, and dozed 
and smoked away the greatest part of that time 
which his official brethren were so beneficially em- 
ploying. We remember that the British consul at 
Athens in 1812 was a Greek, and we found one of 
the vice-consulships in Sicily given to a Frenchman. 
